My desktop's performance has been much slower than it should be for quite awhile. The issue doesn't seem to be with the processor (AMD Phenom 9650 Quad-Core Processor, 2.30 GHz) as it's utilization is always low and I usually have plenty of free RAM. So, my guess is the problem is with the primary hard drive.
I downloaded and ran HD Tune Pro today (pic of results below) and it seems that my 2 5400 RPM Green/Eco drives are significantly outperforming the 7200 RPM Seagate st3250310as drive that I'm using as my primary. The downward spikes seem quite severe and unusual as does the very low Minimum transfer rate (lowest I've seen from other tests is 51 MB/s). I also noticed that there's a "(C7) Ultra DMA CRC Error Count" warning. 1 Error.
I've tried swapping out the SATA cable/port and it didn't help. I have windows 7 Pro configured to defrag on a regular basis. I ran "chkdsk /f" today after the initial test posted below and it did not help any. Subsequent tests have been worse and if I'm doing anything with the computer there's an immediate downward spike.
So, my question,
1.) how bad/abnormal are those results?
2.) anything else I should try or should I just go ahead and replace the hard drive?
Best Answer
I can't compare your results with the masses, however I don't think seeing you write speeds spike downward is ever a good sign.
The error message you were received (Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)) is a method of verifying and correcting data after it is sent. What this warning is telling you is that at one point, data being sent/received by the drive failed this check. The most common cause for this is a faulty cable. Noise or resistence caused a bit to be flipped.
So yes, I would replace the cable.